I have a copy of the original article and Martha's transcript. The original
article reads as follows. "Resaerch has yielded clear information on the
first Wells to settle in Wise County, however. The founder of the family in
this section was Zachariah Wells, who settled near Big Stone Gap soon after
the Revolutionary War. His given name is still a favorite among his numerous
descendants. He was born in the extreme southern part of Virginia, near the
middle of the eighteenth century, and was one of seven or eight brothers who
grew to manhood, and left a long line of descendants in eastern Virginia,
where many of them are well known and useful citizens today. Just as in Wise
County, some of them have risen to eminamce as lawyers and judges.
"On arriving at maturity, Zachariah Wells disagreed with his brother, Robert
Wells, and, on being unable to settle the dispute amicably, turned his steps
toward the mountains of southwest Virginia. which was then a wilderness, save
for sparse settlement here and there, where sturdy French Hugeunots and German
Prodestants were-and a few English-were already carving out a land of the
free.
"He sojourned for awhile in Grayson County. There he met and wooed and won
his bride, a Miss Osborn, who was related to the Osborns of Russell and Wise
Counties. This Miss Osborn, whose given name is not known, was a first cousin
to Easter, the wife of Isaac Richmond. It is not known whether any of their
children were born in Grayson county. Not long after their marriage they came
to the section around Big Stone Gap, shortly after the guns of Kings Mountain
had begun to echo around the world.
"Here they lived and died and their children grew up and married and had
children of their own to the seventh generation."
That is it exactly as it appears in my copy of the original article. I do
believe Martha Heinemann's transcript is supposed to be exactly as it appeared
in the newspaper, but I haven't pulled her transcript out in a long time.
Hope this helps.
Judy Stephenson